Happy Birthday Mr Hojo
xx
Showing posts with label Birthdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Birthdays. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Where have we been?
We have lost the blogging mojo, well Ian gave up months ago...but here I am picture blogging away. My camera died, my lovely old Kodak EasyShare DX7630, you know, so old it had a lens cap! and I had used the kids camera a couple of times, a lovely gift when we left Axbridge from a sweet friend, but it wasn't mine (blush) so I gave up...and then I had a birthday, not just any birthday. A 40th. I am told this is significant in some way, however I notice I was only one day older and nothing fell off or stopped working (apart from the camera) so I guess I am coping. I digress.
Fraser was flying out to Canberra on Friday night, 2 days before my birthday so we swapped presents at dinner. About an hour before his bus left for Perth I gave him his main present from Ian and I, a water proof, drop proof camera with case, with lanyard to help it not get left behind. It is a little beauty.
He in turn game me my main present.... a new camera! snap. A little Canon Power shot which is waaaay clearer than my oldie but goodie Kodak. Which, in true style should have started working perfectly the second I was given a new one, but nope, not this time, poor old thing.
Any how, to celebrate the ability to finally take some pics I have added some. The one I wanted to post is on Frasers camera along with 300 pics from Sydney and Canberra so, nope, not downloading them onto my pc, it is a fab picture of me 2 days before turning 40 with our table number, 39. It is fab because the number hides most of me, but yeah, it made us laugh :o)
After dinner on the Friday we dropped Fraser at the bus, made sure his luggage made it into the hold and his camera around his neck, slipped an envelope of money to his teacher in case he lost his (notice a theme here?) and waved madly (at the mosquitoes to try and stop them biting) goodbye and went home.
Fraser has never had his own mobile so we lent him one for his trip. The teachers encouraged the kids to have them but we didn't expect him to use it. The lovely chap rang or texted every day, letting us know he was ok, letting us know he had almost run out of money 2 days early, yes, I told him about the extra stash, no she didn't let him have it all ;o) we also rang him a couple of times, on his birthday the first he has spent away from us, he rang letting us know his flight was cancelled, we expected him home on Sunday evening, then it was delayed by 24 hours so they were all put up at Virgin Blues' expense, flown to Melbourne then on to Perth and finally landed after midnight on Tuesday morning. I particularly enjoyed collecting him at 3.30 am!
He remembered to shower, took loads of pictures, didn't lose his camera, had fun, bought us all a present each (jewellery for me clever boy) and managed to pack his uniform (needed for a trip to government house) in someone elses bag, less to carry I guess?
So thats where we have been
Thursday, August 19, 2010
10 year olds
Most pictures of Kristian look like this
or this
but every now and then I trick him into looking like this.
Which is half way to normal, for Kristian anyway!
Hurrah for sneaky Mums!
or this
but every now and then I trick him into looking like this.
Which is half way to normal, for Kristian anyway!
Hurrah for sneaky Mums!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Happy Birthday Kristian
Today Kristian is 10, so yesterday we filled the car with children and went to Bunbury for the day.
First stop was a hill near the ocean with cardboard boxes. For sledging. See, you don't need snow, just a grassy hill and boxes. It was really good fun and Kristians friends hadn't tried it before so we stayed for over an hour.
Just as well there was decent coffee near by.
After disposing of the boxes, to the disgust of Kristian who wanted to take one home, we went to watch the waves which were huge.
We managed to Get Kristian and Dom soaked tee hee, and went to the car to refill on chocolate muffins.
Next was bowling, Kristian and his friends had an alley and the rest of us were on another one, too funny. Just as well the sides were blocked or there would have been tears before bedtime :o) and, no, in case you were wondering, all those games of skittles in the pub made no difference to my game and Ian still beat us all, almost twice over!
Next was the annual trip to Hungry Jacks (Burger King) which was no less dissapointing than usual, dirty tables, dirty floors, dodgy microwaved tasting bread and very small burgers, I don't know how the big chains get away with such small, unappetising meals. The other facilities were dirty too.
Home to play for another hour or two and then feet up in front of a cheap ex-rental copy of the last Indiana Jones film and all is well with the world.
It was a grand day out :o)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Marisa is 12
She started the day early which almost never happens, opened some presents, mostly items of black or grey clothing, and scampered off to school. Tradition has it that kids take sweets or cake into school so Marisa took in a piece of cheese. Her request was a cake that looked like cheese so we made 3. Cheddar, Edam and Danish Blue!
The Danish Blue went to school, the Cheddar got eaten at home on her Birthday, the Edam was supposed to be for Saturday when we had a house full of friends but we seem to have forgotten to do that.
Saturday morning her friends arrived and we piled into the car to go to Bunbury for a bash at Roller Skating. I'm fairly sure no huge injuries occured but there were some spectacular crashes. Carolyn skated round a couple of times and decided her forte was standing on the sidelines with a friend howling with laughter at the teenagers on the rink. Priceless.
Some food was noshed, drink slurped, games played, no sympathy was given out for injuries, I'm harsh like that :o)
Kristian was allowed to bring a friend so he wouldn't feel the need to annoy the older kids and it worked well, D has a whizz on the rink and didn't tease K, who wasn't a whizz! poor boy limped around the edge wailing that he was the worst skater in the rink, I'm pretty sure I saw one person worse than him!
It would appear that at least one child is off for xrays this week, oops, and has been on crutches all weeks, double oops!
We drove back leaving kids in various places their parents were hoping we would leave them but still ended up with a few at the house playing on the Wii.
Eventually all but one were gone, so Ian, having finished work, joined us for a meal to end the day. Lovely.
The Danish Blue went to school, the Cheddar got eaten at home on her Birthday, the Edam was supposed to be for Saturday when we had a house full of friends but we seem to have forgotten to do that.
Saturday morning her friends arrived and we piled into the car to go to Bunbury for a bash at Roller Skating. I'm fairly sure no huge injuries occured but there were some spectacular crashes. Carolyn skated round a couple of times and decided her forte was standing on the sidelines with a friend howling with laughter at the teenagers on the rink. Priceless.
Some food was noshed, drink slurped, games played, no sympathy was given out for injuries, I'm harsh like that :o)
Kristian was allowed to bring a friend so he wouldn't feel the need to annoy the older kids and it worked well, D has a whizz on the rink and didn't tease K, who wasn't a whizz! poor boy limped around the edge wailing that he was the worst skater in the rink, I'm pretty sure I saw one person worse than him!
It would appear that at least one child is off for xrays this week, oops, and has been on crutches all weeks, double oops!
We drove back leaving kids in various places their parents were hoping we would leave them but still ended up with a few at the house playing on the Wii.
Eventually all but one were gone, so Ian, having finished work, joined us for a meal to end the day. Lovely.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Gorgeous Girl
I can't believe this gorgeous girl of mine will be 12 this week.
Where did that cute baby go?
Where did that cute baby go?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
What’s a Fried Potato Like?
Saturday 26th September 2009
Saturday, Ians favourite day, Not. And today was not going to let him down.
Firstly the Ice Cream machine packs up, it always seems to pack up on a Saturday when you can’t ring the manufacturers for advice on how to fix the problem, it normally coincides with the holiday period as well and guess what? Yep you got it, the school holidays started today, so with any luck we might get it repaired by the time they go back to school, just in time for us not to need it as much.
It’s AFL Final day today, after weeks of Finals leading up to last weeks Preliminary Final, we now have the Final and it is between St Kilda who are unbeaten all season and Geelong who lost in the Final last year.
The shopping centre was busy this morning, but we were really quiet, because the game starts at 12noon over here, everyone goes out and does their shopping early before rushing home to fire up the Barbie and get drunk, hence they don’t stop in Cafes on Final day.
Ian did however get a little bit of a giggle out of the staff this morning, also you can now put a name to the comment because when Ian told them that he was going to blog what they had said, they insisted on being named, so here goes.
It was Kates turn first, Kate does most of the hard graft on a Saturday and tends to be able to keep the rest of the kitchen staff moving.
We needed some potatoes peeled this morning so that we could make up a pot of mash, Ian asked Kate to do it which she did, then just as she was about to finish peeling, she held a potato up in front of her face, looked at it and said I wonder what a potato would be like if you put it in the fryer, Ian looked at her incredulously, at least he thinks that’s the word you would use to describe the look, and said “a Chip”, she sort of blushed a bit and said “oh yeh”.
We wouldn’t mind, but the bulk of her waitressing involves chips and she hadn’t realised that they were made from potatoes.
The second quote of the day came from Rachel, when Ian was telling the girls about Kristian and his friend getting awards for their NAPLAN results,
Rachel said “I was in that assembly, they were for the people in the top 20% weren’t they?”
Ian said “yes that’s right”
Rachel said” when they were giving them out I said to my friend, I bet we’re in the other half”.
Ian laughed, obviously they took the maths results into account when checking Rachels results.
Later on when Carolyn came into the Café, Ian told her about Rachels little faux par and Rachel still couldn’t understand why it was funny, so Carolyn tried to explain to her that if only 20% got the award, then there was a lot more than half left, there for she couldn’t possibly be in the half that didn’t get the award.
Rachel then took a different tack and said that what she actually meant was that half of her class got the award, she expected that she would not receive an award, so she would be in the other half of her class.
Ian thinks she’s talking tosh.
Because it was so quiet in the Café today, we were able to have a bit of a laugh at their expense, but normally this dippy attitude goes on when we’re busy which is why Ian gets so stressed out on a Saturday.
Because it was so quiet we closed the Café early, when Ian got home he thought he might like to watch the AFL Final or what was left of it, but the kids were watching Matrix so he started listening to it on the radio.
As it approached the final quarter, Ian got Marisa to put the film on Frasers computer so that he could watch the game, unfortunately we don’t have terrestrial TV down here and Foxtel show it about four hours after it is finished, so Marisa put her film back on.
Ian did go online to try and find out the result and there were hints that Geelong might have won, but the official AFL site wouldn’t let him get past the score at half time, so he lost interest.
This evening we took Fraser and his mate out for dinner at the Chinese before going to the cinema to watch G-Force, it was the final part of Frasers birthday celebrations so we let Fraser and his mate sit at the back squealing like stuck pigs every time something funny happened, while we sat a few rows in front pretending not to know them.
It was a good evening and Fraser really enjoyed himself.
Saturday, Ians favourite day, Not. And today was not going to let him down.
Firstly the Ice Cream machine packs up, it always seems to pack up on a Saturday when you can’t ring the manufacturers for advice on how to fix the problem, it normally coincides with the holiday period as well and guess what? Yep you got it, the school holidays started today, so with any luck we might get it repaired by the time they go back to school, just in time for us not to need it as much.
It’s AFL Final day today, after weeks of Finals leading up to last weeks Preliminary Final, we now have the Final and it is between St Kilda who are unbeaten all season and Geelong who lost in the Final last year.
The shopping centre was busy this morning, but we were really quiet, because the game starts at 12noon over here, everyone goes out and does their shopping early before rushing home to fire up the Barbie and get drunk, hence they don’t stop in Cafes on Final day.
Ian did however get a little bit of a giggle out of the staff this morning, also you can now put a name to the comment because when Ian told them that he was going to blog what they had said, they insisted on being named, so here goes.
It was Kates turn first, Kate does most of the hard graft on a Saturday and tends to be able to keep the rest of the kitchen staff moving.
We needed some potatoes peeled this morning so that we could make up a pot of mash, Ian asked Kate to do it which she did, then just as she was about to finish peeling, she held a potato up in front of her face, looked at it and said I wonder what a potato would be like if you put it in the fryer, Ian looked at her incredulously, at least he thinks that’s the word you would use to describe the look, and said “a Chip”, she sort of blushed a bit and said “oh yeh”.
We wouldn’t mind, but the bulk of her waitressing involves chips and she hadn’t realised that they were made from potatoes.
The second quote of the day came from Rachel, when Ian was telling the girls about Kristian and his friend getting awards for their NAPLAN results,
Rachel said “I was in that assembly, they were for the people in the top 20% weren’t they?”
Ian said “yes that’s right”
Rachel said” when they were giving them out I said to my friend, I bet we’re in the other half”.
Ian laughed, obviously they took the maths results into account when checking Rachels results.
Later on when Carolyn came into the Café, Ian told her about Rachels little faux par and Rachel still couldn’t understand why it was funny, so Carolyn tried to explain to her that if only 20% got the award, then there was a lot more than half left, there for she couldn’t possibly be in the half that didn’t get the award.
Rachel then took a different tack and said that what she actually meant was that half of her class got the award, she expected that she would not receive an award, so she would be in the other half of her class.
Ian thinks she’s talking tosh.
Because it was so quiet in the Café today, we were able to have a bit of a laugh at their expense, but normally this dippy attitude goes on when we’re busy which is why Ian gets so stressed out on a Saturday.
Because it was so quiet we closed the Café early, when Ian got home he thought he might like to watch the AFL Final or what was left of it, but the kids were watching Matrix so he started listening to it on the radio.
As it approached the final quarter, Ian got Marisa to put the film on Frasers computer so that he could watch the game, unfortunately we don’t have terrestrial TV down here and Foxtel show it about four hours after it is finished, so Marisa put her film back on.
Ian did go online to try and find out the result and there were hints that Geelong might have won, but the official AFL site wouldn’t let him get past the score at half time, so he lost interest.
This evening we took Fraser and his mate out for dinner at the Chinese before going to the cinema to watch G-Force, it was the final part of Frasers birthday celebrations so we let Fraser and his mate sit at the back squealing like stuck pigs every time something funny happened, while we sat a few rows in front pretending not to know them.
It was a good evening and Fraser really enjoyed himself.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Poo on a Grand Scale
Friday 25th September 2009
Carolyn has managed to fill the equivalent of three wheelie bins full of puppy poo and pee covered newspaper this week, it’s just as well half of our neighbours are grey nomads who haven’t come back from the sun yet, otherwise they would have nowhere to put their rubbish.
The Café was mobbed today, from about 9am to 2.30pm it was just flat out and was probably our best day since last Christmas holidays, saying that, it died quite dramatically in the afternoon and we closed early.
This evening Fraser went Bowling in Bunbury with his best mate whose birthday it was earlier in the week, the other two went to Freaky Friday as usual. We had to stay up till 10pm waiting for him to come home so we could go to bed. Argghh to teenagers and when can he learn to drive please.
Carolyn has managed to fill the equivalent of three wheelie bins full of puppy poo and pee covered newspaper this week, it’s just as well half of our neighbours are grey nomads who haven’t come back from the sun yet, otherwise they would have nowhere to put their rubbish.
The Café was mobbed today, from about 9am to 2.30pm it was just flat out and was probably our best day since last Christmas holidays, saying that, it died quite dramatically in the afternoon and we closed early.
This evening Fraser went Bowling in Bunbury with his best mate whose birthday it was earlier in the week, the other two went to Freaky Friday as usual. We had to stay up till 10pm waiting for him to come home so we could go to bed. Argghh to teenagers and when can he learn to drive please.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Birthday Boy
Thursday 24th September 2009
It was an early start for all of us today, Ian had to be in work for 7am to see in a delivery and it’s Frasers birthday, we now have an official teenager in the house as opposed to three unofficial ones.
Whenever there is a birthday in this house, it is customary for cards and presents to be opened before anybody leaves the premises and as Fraser likes to have a good look at what he has got before he opens the next one, it can become quite time consuming, hence getting up really early to get it over and done with.
Fraser loved his presents, which was just as well really as they were chosen from a list that he had painstakingly written whilst camping out in the toy shop for most of the day last Saturday.
It was another day of being quiet in the morning and busy at lunchtime and in the afternoon at the Café today, but compared to this week last year we are doing very well, we reckon that the new Freeway extension from Perth which is going to take thirty minutes off the driving time from Perth to Busselton, is going to be a tourist attraction in its own right and will increase the tourist trade down here, or possibly is already.
We went to the local Mexican restaurant “El Gringo’s” for Frasers birthday meal tonight, we all enjoyed our food there and then came home for birthday cake with fab candles that burn with blue, red and green flames, very cool.
It was an early start for all of us today, Ian had to be in work for 7am to see in a delivery and it’s Frasers birthday, we now have an official teenager in the house as opposed to three unofficial ones.
Whenever there is a birthday in this house, it is customary for cards and presents to be opened before anybody leaves the premises and as Fraser likes to have a good look at what he has got before he opens the next one, it can become quite time consuming, hence getting up really early to get it over and done with.
Fraser loved his presents, which was just as well really as they were chosen from a list that he had painstakingly written whilst camping out in the toy shop for most of the day last Saturday.
It was another day of being quiet in the morning and busy at lunchtime and in the afternoon at the Café today, but compared to this week last year we are doing very well, we reckon that the new Freeway extension from Perth which is going to take thirty minutes off the driving time from Perth to Busselton, is going to be a tourist attraction in its own right and will increase the tourist trade down here, or possibly is already.
We went to the local Mexican restaurant “El Gringo’s” for Frasers birthday meal tonight, we all enjoyed our food there and then came home for birthday cake with fab candles that burn with blue, red and green flames, very cool.
Pooing and Weeing.. I can't believe we have stooped to titles like this!
Sunday 20th September 2009
We woke up at a reasonable hour this morning and went for breakfast in Dunsborough, it was just another part of Carolyns birthday celebrations, she does like to make it last as long as possible.
After breakfast we went for a walk round town and down to the waterfront, it was very windy and raining quite a bit but we seemed to be under cover whenever the rain came.
We couldn’t stay out all day because the puppies needed feeding and pooing and weeing and cleaning up after, but we did stop for an ice cream at Simmo’s before heading home.
It was cold, windy and rainy all afternoon, so after cleaning out the rabbits, dogs and cat, we sat and watched the film Storm Seekers with Darryl Hannah, she didn’t half look rough in it, her face looked all bloated like that of an alcoholic and it wasn’t the best bit of acting we’d ever seen, but that probably explains why we had never heard of it before.
The kids said that they enjoyed it, but we suspect that it was the fact that they were allowed to eat yesterday’s leftover pizza in front of the telly that really impressed them.
In the evening after the kids had gone to bed, we watched episodes of Life on Mars and Torchwood, we don’t know if we are just watching a bad batch of Torchwood episodes or whether they are normally like this, but the acting, storylines and script are so naff that it has almost become an addiction, watching them to see how bad they can really get.
We woke up at a reasonable hour this morning and went for breakfast in Dunsborough, it was just another part of Carolyns birthday celebrations, she does like to make it last as long as possible.
After breakfast we went for a walk round town and down to the waterfront, it was very windy and raining quite a bit but we seemed to be under cover whenever the rain came.
We couldn’t stay out all day because the puppies needed feeding and pooing and weeing and cleaning up after, but we did stop for an ice cream at Simmo’s before heading home.
It was cold, windy and rainy all afternoon, so after cleaning out the rabbits, dogs and cat, we sat and watched the film Storm Seekers with Darryl Hannah, she didn’t half look rough in it, her face looked all bloated like that of an alcoholic and it wasn’t the best bit of acting we’d ever seen, but that probably explains why we had never heard of it before.
The kids said that they enjoyed it, but we suspect that it was the fact that they were allowed to eat yesterday’s leftover pizza in front of the telly that really impressed them.
In the evening after the kids had gone to bed, we watched episodes of Life on Mars and Torchwood, we don’t know if we are just watching a bad batch of Torchwood episodes or whether they are normally like this, but the acting, storylines and script are so naff that it has almost become an addiction, watching them to see how bad they can really get.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
English Jelly Babies
Saturday 19th September 2009
Carolyns birthday and she had to work, she didn’t have to work until 10am mind and she finished at 1pm, so it wasn’t so hard really.
Fliss and Lukery her lover took the kids to the cinema this morning, they went to see the film UP, we reckon Lukery loves these cartoon films but is a bit too macho to go on his own and Fliss is just a big kid herself, so when a film like this comes along taking the kids is the perfect alibi.
Ian was hoping to finish work early today, but with staff dragging their heels as usual it was 4pm by the time he finished everything he had to do.
After work, Ian went shopping for some English Jelly Babies and rabbit scraps at IGA supermarket, Australian Jelly Babies are disgusting, the person who makes the Australian version has obviously never tasted the far superior English version, or maybe he doesn’t really care what they taste like because if they are only eaten by Australians the chances are they will be covered in tomato sauce anyway, so it doesn’t matter what they taste like because they will all be tomato sauce flavour by the time the get eaten.
When Ian got home, Carolyn opened her cards and presents and seemed to like them all, so that was a result.
We went out for dinner at the Vasse tonight, the boys were determined to have a Pizza each despite the fact that we told them they were big, they managed to finish the equivalent of one whole pizza between them, so guess what they’ve got for dinner tomorrow.
Carolyn had a steak with mushrooms stuffed with snails, we haven’t eaten snails since we were back in the UK, so she was in her element and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, she reckons it was the best meal she had eaten in Busselton and let the chef know it.
After dinner we walked up to the Royal Palms (Ship) for a quick drink before catching a taxi home, the floor in the bar was once again filthy and sticky as they had a crowd in to watch the AFL (aerial ping pong) this afternoon and none of the staff could be arsed to mop the floor afterwards despite it being the main bar for a wedding reception in the evening, the management should be ashamed of themselves.
After we got home, Ian watched the real football, Arsenal v Wigan, a mismatch if ever there was one, while Carolyn played on the computer.
The dogs still haven’t got a name although we did sit up last night firing names at each other, Hinge and Bracket, Smith and Jones, Samson (sammy) and Delilah, Anthony (Antoinette) and Cleopatra, George (Georgia) and Mildred and many more, they are Carolyns babies so she is going to have the final decision at some point, the rest of us will just have to wait in nervous anticipation.
Carolyns birthday and she had to work, she didn’t have to work until 10am mind and she finished at 1pm, so it wasn’t so hard really.
Fliss and Lukery her lover took the kids to the cinema this morning, they went to see the film UP, we reckon Lukery loves these cartoon films but is a bit too macho to go on his own and Fliss is just a big kid herself, so when a film like this comes along taking the kids is the perfect alibi.
Ian was hoping to finish work early today, but with staff dragging their heels as usual it was 4pm by the time he finished everything he had to do.
After work, Ian went shopping for some English Jelly Babies and rabbit scraps at IGA supermarket, Australian Jelly Babies are disgusting, the person who makes the Australian version has obviously never tasted the far superior English version, or maybe he doesn’t really care what they taste like because if they are only eaten by Australians the chances are they will be covered in tomato sauce anyway, so it doesn’t matter what they taste like because they will all be tomato sauce flavour by the time the get eaten.
When Ian got home, Carolyn opened her cards and presents and seemed to like them all, so that was a result.
We went out for dinner at the Vasse tonight, the boys were determined to have a Pizza each despite the fact that we told them they were big, they managed to finish the equivalent of one whole pizza between them, so guess what they’ve got for dinner tomorrow.
Carolyn had a steak with mushrooms stuffed with snails, we haven’t eaten snails since we were back in the UK, so she was in her element and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, she reckons it was the best meal she had eaten in Busselton and let the chef know it.
After dinner we walked up to the Royal Palms (Ship) for a quick drink before catching a taxi home, the floor in the bar was once again filthy and sticky as they had a crowd in to watch the AFL (aerial ping pong) this afternoon and none of the staff could be arsed to mop the floor afterwards despite it being the main bar for a wedding reception in the evening, the management should be ashamed of themselves.
After we got home, Ian watched the real football, Arsenal v Wigan, a mismatch if ever there was one, while Carolyn played on the computer.
The dogs still haven’t got a name although we did sit up last night firing names at each other, Hinge and Bracket, Smith and Jones, Samson (sammy) and Delilah, Anthony (Antoinette) and Cleopatra, George (Georgia) and Mildred and many more, they are Carolyns babies so she is going to have the final decision at some point, the rest of us will just have to wait in nervous anticipation.
No News About @@@@@
Thursday 17th September 2009
Kristian and his class went to the Old Butter Factory in Busselton today on a school trip, Carolyn was hoping to go with them as a little helper but she had to help out in the Café instead.
It was fairly busy in the Café today, there seems to be a lot of tourists around, so hopefully the silly season is going to start early.
We haven’t heard from the girl about the @@@@@s today, and Carolyn would really like a matching pair. There are loads of ads for @@@@ starting to appear in the local papers, so if this doesn’t work out, Carolyns bound to find another soon enough.
Kristian and his class went to the Old Butter Factory in Busselton today on a school trip, Carolyn was hoping to go with them as a little helper but she had to help out in the Café instead.
It was fairly busy in the Café today, there seems to be a lot of tourists around, so hopefully the silly season is going to start early.
We haven’t heard from the girl about the @@@@@s today, and Carolyn would really like a matching pair. There are loads of ads for @@@@ starting to appear in the local papers, so if this doesn’t work out, Carolyns bound to find another soon enough.
A Broken Hose
Wednesday 16th September 2009
Carolyn helped out with reading lessons in Kristians class this morning, she normally spends about thirty minutes there but thinks that she needs to spend longer so that she can listen to more kids read, so as of next week she is going to stay longer.
It was a fairly quiet start to the day in the Café today, then just before it started to get busy, the waste hose from the dishwasher decided to break and dump water all over the kitchen floor, Ian just about had enough time to mop the floor and work out what the problem with the machine was before it got busy.
Carolyn went out and got a new hose for the machine, but we were too busy to find time to fit it, so we had to hand wash all lunchtime until Ian could repair it.
Carolyn went to look at a couple of @@@@@ this afternoon, after all what would the girl who has everything want for her birthday, they are @@@@@@@@@@@ and apparently look lovely, but then again, when was the last time you heard someone so “what an ugly @@@”, it doesn’t happen, you never know, one day in WA they might even start using them to advertise @@@@@@@@.
* all the @@@@@@@ are so we don’t spoil the surprise!
Carolyn helped out with reading lessons in Kristians class this morning, she normally spends about thirty minutes there but thinks that she needs to spend longer so that she can listen to more kids read, so as of next week she is going to stay longer.
It was a fairly quiet start to the day in the Café today, then just before it started to get busy, the waste hose from the dishwasher decided to break and dump water all over the kitchen floor, Ian just about had enough time to mop the floor and work out what the problem with the machine was before it got busy.
Carolyn went out and got a new hose for the machine, but we were too busy to find time to fit it, so we had to hand wash all lunchtime until Ian could repair it.
Carolyn went to look at a couple of @@@@@ this afternoon, after all what would the girl who has everything want for her birthday, they are @@@@@@@@@@@ and apparently look lovely, but then again, when was the last time you heard someone so “what an ugly @@@”, it doesn’t happen, you never know, one day in WA they might even start using them to advertise @@@@@@@@.
* all the @@@@@@@ are so we don’t spoil the surprise!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Ancient River Bed
Sunday 16th August 2009
We had to be up early this morning to get ready for Kristians birthday outing, plus of course he had to open all his presents before we could do anything.
Carolyn was picking up a couple of Kristians friends just before 9am, so Ian went to the market on his own to get the fruit, none of the kids would go with him while there were a load of new toys lying around that needed to be played with.
After Ian got back and Carolyn had picked Kristians mates, we drove to Ngilgi cave where we went on a guided tour down to the ancient river beds that would have been flowing about 10,000 years ago.
The tour took us off the beaten track, we had to wear hard hats with lights attached, we clambered over rocks, squeezed through gaps and when we got to the Ancient River bed we had to crawl on hands and knees to get to the end, we all enjoyed it and Kristians mates announced that it was the best birthday party they had ever been to which was nice.
It was a really good tour and one that we would recommend for adventurous but well behaved kids, fortunately ours and those that came with us fit into both of those categories.
After we came out of the cave, the kids had an Ice Cream while we had a coffee and rested our weary bones.
From Ngilgi we went to Yallingup Maze, where we sent the kids into the maze while we played with puzzles in the café while drinking coffee.
The café at Yallingup maze has got loads of infuriating puzzles on the tables and as much as you might try to ignore them, it doesn’t take long before you stop talking to each other and start cursing the puzzle, but people keep coming back for more so it must work.
From the Maze we drove to Cheffy’s in Yallingup for lunch, fortunately they weren’t over busy, we got a table straight away and we had a good meal before heading home for Birthday Cake.
After cake the kids played while Ian watched Arsenal stuff Everton 6-1 on telly, at 5pm Carolyn took one of Kristians friends home and the other ones parents came to pick him up.
We did very little this evening, just about enough to make sure we all had something to wear tomorrow and then vegged out in front of the telly.
We had to be up early this morning to get ready for Kristians birthday outing, plus of course he had to open all his presents before we could do anything.
Carolyn was picking up a couple of Kristians friends just before 9am, so Ian went to the market on his own to get the fruit, none of the kids would go with him while there were a load of new toys lying around that needed to be played with.
After Ian got back and Carolyn had picked Kristians mates, we drove to Ngilgi cave where we went on a guided tour down to the ancient river beds that would have been flowing about 10,000 years ago.
The tour took us off the beaten track, we had to wear hard hats with lights attached, we clambered over rocks, squeezed through gaps and when we got to the Ancient River bed we had to crawl on hands and knees to get to the end, we all enjoyed it and Kristians mates announced that it was the best birthday party they had ever been to which was nice.
It was a really good tour and one that we would recommend for adventurous but well behaved kids, fortunately ours and those that came with us fit into both of those categories.
After we came out of the cave, the kids had an Ice Cream while we had a coffee and rested our weary bones.
From Ngilgi we went to Yallingup Maze, where we sent the kids into the maze while we played with puzzles in the café while drinking coffee.
The café at Yallingup maze has got loads of infuriating puzzles on the tables and as much as you might try to ignore them, it doesn’t take long before you stop talking to each other and start cursing the puzzle, but people keep coming back for more so it must work.
From the Maze we drove to Cheffy’s in Yallingup for lunch, fortunately they weren’t over busy, we got a table straight away and we had a good meal before heading home for Birthday Cake.
After cake the kids played while Ian watched Arsenal stuff Everton 6-1 on telly, at 5pm Carolyn took one of Kristians friends home and the other ones parents came to pick him up.
We did very little this evening, just about enough to make sure we all had something to wear tomorrow and then vegged out in front of the telly.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Jungle Bungle
Saturday 9th May 2009
Tomorrow is Mothers Day over here so the town was busy this morning, the problem was, it was all men with kids and men with kids going shopping for a present for mum are not generally in the mood to browse and stop for a coffee while discussing what they are going to buy.
So the Café was pretty quiet today due to the lack of females about, fortunately one of the staff rang in sick so at least we saved a few bob there.
Marisa and some of her friends went to Jungle Bungle this morning for a couple of hours play as part of Marisas week long birthday celebrations, they ran around like lunatics while Carolyn sat outside soaking up the sun, drinking coffee and pretending she was the responsible adult.
After Jungle Bungle they all went to the Chinese for lunch, they had a great time in there with Marisa and her mates sitting on one table while Carolyn and the boys sat on another, we thought they might like to feel like they were young adults dining out together but with the knowledge that Carolyn was watching from a distance.
After the Chinese, where the kids behaved themselves more or less for more or less the duration of the meal, they went to Gelato for in Ice Cream before heading home.
After Ian finished work we drove to the Jetty to have a look at the Jetty Jamboree, a celebration of the fact that they are at last going to start work on rebuilding and making it safe again.
We got there at about a quarter to six and it was due to be going on until 7pm, but we had missed anything that was going on in regard to entertainment.
We did meet the parents of one of Kristians friends and had a chat with them while the kids ran wild, then we had a sausage sizzle and went home, it was a bit of an anti climax for us as far as Jamborees go.
When we got home we put the kids to bed and watched the film Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, it is a great fun film but no good for the kids and not as good as Romancing the Stone which we saw the other night.
Tomorrow is Mothers Day over here so the town was busy this morning, the problem was, it was all men with kids and men with kids going shopping for a present for mum are not generally in the mood to browse and stop for a coffee while discussing what they are going to buy.
So the Café was pretty quiet today due to the lack of females about, fortunately one of the staff rang in sick so at least we saved a few bob there.
Marisa and some of her friends went to Jungle Bungle this morning for a couple of hours play as part of Marisas week long birthday celebrations, they ran around like lunatics while Carolyn sat outside soaking up the sun, drinking coffee and pretending she was the responsible adult.
After Jungle Bungle they all went to the Chinese for lunch, they had a great time in there with Marisa and her mates sitting on one table while Carolyn and the boys sat on another, we thought they might like to feel like they were young adults dining out together but with the knowledge that Carolyn was watching from a distance.
After the Chinese, where the kids behaved themselves more or less for more or less the duration of the meal, they went to Gelato for in Ice Cream before heading home.
After Ian finished work we drove to the Jetty to have a look at the Jetty Jamboree, a celebration of the fact that they are at last going to start work on rebuilding and making it safe again.
We got there at about a quarter to six and it was due to be going on until 7pm, but we had missed anything that was going on in regard to entertainment.
We did meet the parents of one of Kristians friends and had a chat with them while the kids ran wild, then we had a sausage sizzle and went home, it was a bit of an anti climax for us as far as Jamborees go.
When we got home we put the kids to bed and watched the film Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, it is a great fun film but no good for the kids and not as good as Romancing the Stone which we saw the other night.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
An E-Mail from Sarah
Tuesday 5th May 2009
We all got up early this morning so that Marisa could open her birthday presents before Ian had to go to work, she was over the moon with everything she got.
She got loads of cards and some emails, including one from her sister Sarah who is still in the UK which made her really happy, that is to say it was the email that made her happy and not the fact that her sister is in the UK.
On the contrary, she would be over the moon if she came to stay with us over here, she is so done with her brothers and desperate for someone to have girlie chats with.
She took Chocolates into school to share her mates there, in the evening she took a Cake to Scouts to share out amongst her friends there and when she got back from Scouts she had her Chocolate Birthday Cake for supper.
Fraser received some good news from school today, he got 64% for his Science test that he did last Friday and 90% for rewriting the Nicene Creed in his (own) words.
Fraser and Marisa brought four boxes of chocolates home with them from Scouts, the idea being that they sell them to help raise funds for the Scout Jamboree which they are both going on next year.
When the kids went to bed it was a bit late for us to watch a DVD so we checked out the Foxtel TV guide to see if there was anything worth watching, as it happened there was a film just starting that was only short, we had never heard of it before but decided to watch it anyway.
The film in question was called Boa and starred, if that’s what you would call it, Dean something or something Dean, the guy who played the young Superman on TV.
He must have fallen on really difficult times to have been reduced to accepting a role in this pile of Do Do, it was terrible and must rank as one of the worst films we have ever seen and we have seen a few naff ones.
We hope he felt suitably ashamed after that one and went back to acting school for a refresher course, cos he wouldn’t have impressed too many potential employers with that one.
The worst part of the film was at the end when they fly away into the sunset only to find the snake on the plane, they wrap a parachute round its neck and sling it out of the back of the plane, this could only mean one thing, the Director thinks he is in with a chance of doing a sequel, because with a parachute wrapped round its neck the snake is going to have a safe landing and go on to terrorise the rest of the world, or part of it anyway.
We all got up early this morning so that Marisa could open her birthday presents before Ian had to go to work, she was over the moon with everything she got.
She got loads of cards and some emails, including one from her sister Sarah who is still in the UK which made her really happy, that is to say it was the email that made her happy and not the fact that her sister is in the UK.
On the contrary, she would be over the moon if she came to stay with us over here, she is so done with her brothers and desperate for someone to have girlie chats with.
She took Chocolates into school to share her mates there, in the evening she took a Cake to Scouts to share out amongst her friends there and when she got back from Scouts she had her Chocolate Birthday Cake for supper.
Fraser received some good news from school today, he got 64% for his Science test that he did last Friday and 90% for rewriting the Nicene Creed in his (own) words.
Fraser and Marisa brought four boxes of chocolates home with them from Scouts, the idea being that they sell them to help raise funds for the Scout Jamboree which they are both going on next year.
When the kids went to bed it was a bit late for us to watch a DVD so we checked out the Foxtel TV guide to see if there was anything worth watching, as it happened there was a film just starting that was only short, we had never heard of it before but decided to watch it anyway.
The film in question was called Boa and starred, if that’s what you would call it, Dean something or something Dean, the guy who played the young Superman on TV.
He must have fallen on really difficult times to have been reduced to accepting a role in this pile of Do Do, it was terrible and must rank as one of the worst films we have ever seen and we have seen a few naff ones.
We hope he felt suitably ashamed after that one and went back to acting school for a refresher course, cos he wouldn’t have impressed too many potential employers with that one.
The worst part of the film was at the end when they fly away into the sunset only to find the snake on the plane, they wrap a parachute round its neck and sling it out of the back of the plane, this could only mean one thing, the Director thinks he is in with a chance of doing a sequel, because with a parachute wrapped round its neck the snake is going to have a safe landing and go on to terrorise the rest of the world, or part of it anyway.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Monday Morning Mayhem
Monday 4th May 2009
The Café was busy today, usual Monday morning mayhem plus a lot more, perhaps they felt sorry for us after not coming in on Saturday.
Carolyn went last minute shopping for birthday presents for Marisa, she has to have enough cakes and sweets to feed School, Scouts and Home otherwise she’d feel hard done by.
In the evening Carolyn took Kristian to Cubs and brought him back about half an hour later, the Cub leader is having great difficulty getting a second person to help her run the group so gets her son to assist and as the Cub leader is supposed to have responsible adult support, we were not prepared to leave him there.
Carolyn spent the evening wrapping birthday presents, Marisa spent the evening being totally hyper at the thought of her birthday and unable to sleep.
The Café was busy today, usual Monday morning mayhem plus a lot more, perhaps they felt sorry for us after not coming in on Saturday.
Carolyn went last minute shopping for birthday presents for Marisa, she has to have enough cakes and sweets to feed School, Scouts and Home otherwise she’d feel hard done by.
In the evening Carolyn took Kristian to Cubs and brought him back about half an hour later, the Cub leader is having great difficulty getting a second person to help her run the group so gets her son to assist and as the Cub leader is supposed to have responsible adult support, we were not prepared to leave him there.
Carolyn spent the evening wrapping birthday presents, Marisa spent the evening being totally hyper at the thought of her birthday and unable to sleep.
Monday, March 17, 2008
10,000bc
Thursday 13th March 2008
It’s Malcolm’s birthday today and Sharon does not want her garden taken over by one tree so we bought him a Lime tree instead, at least the branches won’t fall and hit anyone and he can stick the fruit in a bottle of beer.
Ian went out with the kids while Carolyn started packing and picked up the car from the dealer, they still haven’t finished the paintwork and could not guarantee it before Saturday so have agreed to let the Dealer in Busselton do it and they will pay for it, not only that, they are going to pay for a hire car whilst it is being done.
We went to the Cinema this evening and saw 10,000BC, it wasn’t bad the kids loved it and Kristian talked all the way through it, Carolyn has told Kristian that she is never going to sit next to him again in a cinema; some women just don’t have a sense of humour.
It’s Malcolm’s birthday today and Sharon does not want her garden taken over by one tree so we bought him a Lime tree instead, at least the branches won’t fall and hit anyone and he can stick the fruit in a bottle of beer.
Ian went out with the kids while Carolyn started packing and picked up the car from the dealer, they still haven’t finished the paintwork and could not guarantee it before Saturday so have agreed to let the Dealer in Busselton do it and they will pay for it, not only that, they are going to pay for a hire car whilst it is being done.
We went to the Cinema this evening and saw 10,000BC, it wasn’t bad the kids loved it and Kristian talked all the way through it, Carolyn has told Kristian that she is never going to sit next to him again in a cinema; some women just don’t have a sense of humour.
Amazing Avocados
Wednesday 12th March 2008
Had a call this morning, the bit of paper that has been flying back and forth with the offer details for the house is now unreadable so the agent has got to send a clean copy, express post, to the Trustee who will return it, express post on the same day which means that in theory we will receive a scanned copy on Friday which we will then have to print and take over to the Mortgage advisors office so that we can fax it through to FIRB and hopefully save ourselves a couple of days. If this does manage to go through on time it is going to be tight.
We have managed to find a Furnished house in Busselton that we can rent until the house sale goes through and will be moving in on Saturday, that will give Sharon a chance to recover before the next lot of family move in at Easter for 3 ½ weeks.
The weather is hot today 33C, so we went out for the day to a place called Maze (guess what we did there?), it was a cracking day out, we walked round a few mazes, and saw some Koalas, Red and Grey Kangaroos and Emus, before lunch. After lunch we played a couple of rounds of crazy golf, the first of which was played using Frisbees instead of golf bats and balls and was extremely amusing and time consuming and bearing in mind it is not something we would normally do I think we did well before the park closed. The second game was just ordinary crazy golf which Ian won.
Its Malcolm’s birthday tomorrow and he wants an Avocado tree so on the way home we took a diversion down the Wanneroo road looking for nurseries that might have them for sale but there seems to be a shortage of them because everywhere we went they said they would normally stock them but they just can’t any at the moment, so on the way home as a last resort we stopped at Bunnings, the Australian equivalent of B&Q and although they didn’t have any and didn’t know why they didn’t have any the old boy who was serving us did point out that you shouldn’t have Avocado trees near children because the branches drop off for no apparent reason, and what good is a child with no branches, but more importantly from Sharon’s point of view as it is going to be her garden that it would be planted in, they grow up to 25-30 feet tall and 7-8 metres wide within a couple of years and her garden is not the largest in town. Did you like the way I managed to use imperial and metric in the same sentence? Is that what they mean by Multi tasking?
After that we needed to freshen up a bit so we went down to the beach for a couple of hours, the surf was great for body boarding, probably a bit like back in the UK at the moment.
Sharon did the cooking again tonight, she’s starting to get very inventive all of a sudden, tonight’s culinary delight was last nights Chilli leftovers mixed with sliced Pepperoni, plastic coating and all, stirred through with a jar of Dol Mio and served with Pasta, it was different and I bet Jamie Oliver would never have thought of it but it was very tasty.
Had a call this morning, the bit of paper that has been flying back and forth with the offer details for the house is now unreadable so the agent has got to send a clean copy, express post, to the Trustee who will return it, express post on the same day which means that in theory we will receive a scanned copy on Friday which we will then have to print and take over to the Mortgage advisors office so that we can fax it through to FIRB and hopefully save ourselves a couple of days. If this does manage to go through on time it is going to be tight.
We have managed to find a Furnished house in Busselton that we can rent until the house sale goes through and will be moving in on Saturday, that will give Sharon a chance to recover before the next lot of family move in at Easter for 3 ½ weeks.
The weather is hot today 33C, so we went out for the day to a place called Maze (guess what we did there?), it was a cracking day out, we walked round a few mazes, and saw some Koalas, Red and Grey Kangaroos and Emus, before lunch. After lunch we played a couple of rounds of crazy golf, the first of which was played using Frisbees instead of golf bats and balls and was extremely amusing and time consuming and bearing in mind it is not something we would normally do I think we did well before the park closed. The second game was just ordinary crazy golf which Ian won.
Its Malcolm’s birthday tomorrow and he wants an Avocado tree so on the way home we took a diversion down the Wanneroo road looking for nurseries that might have them for sale but there seems to be a shortage of them because everywhere we went they said they would normally stock them but they just can’t any at the moment, so on the way home as a last resort we stopped at Bunnings, the Australian equivalent of B&Q and although they didn’t have any and didn’t know why they didn’t have any the old boy who was serving us did point out that you shouldn’t have Avocado trees near children because the branches drop off for no apparent reason, and what good is a child with no branches, but more importantly from Sharon’s point of view as it is going to be her garden that it would be planted in, they grow up to 25-30 feet tall and 7-8 metres wide within a couple of years and her garden is not the largest in town. Did you like the way I managed to use imperial and metric in the same sentence? Is that what they mean by Multi tasking?
After that we needed to freshen up a bit so we went down to the beach for a couple of hours, the surf was great for body boarding, probably a bit like back in the UK at the moment.
Sharon did the cooking again tonight, she’s starting to get very inventive all of a sudden, tonight’s culinary delight was last nights Chilli leftovers mixed with sliced Pepperoni, plastic coating and all, stirred through with a jar of Dol Mio and served with Pasta, it was different and I bet Jamie Oliver would never have thought of it but it was very tasty.
A dog and a birthday, but not the dogs you understand?
Thursday 7th February 2008
Got up early and after breakfast we went up to the Car Showroom to test drive the Zafira that we saw yesterday. It runs like a dream, low mileage, full service history and apart from a couple of minor scrapes on the rear bumper is generally in good condition. We have a bit of a barter, agree a price and they agree to respray the bumper and tidy up a couple of scratches, and to top it all we get them to give us a courtesy car while we are waiting for ours to be prepared and made ready for collection.
The courtesy car is a bit of a dog to drive, a Nissan Pulsar which has obviously been massively abused by its previous owner, but it means we have a bit of independence and do not have to try and fit everything in around Sharon’s lifts to and from work.
12 noon and we have a meeting with a dodgy Irish Business Agent that has been advertising in the papers for the last couple of weeks that he has got an abundance of Café style businesses that will make their new owners very rich people. He spent just over an hour telling us to avoid dodgy Business Agents and when he could see that we weren’t impressed with his well rehearsed patter he said that he would get back to us when he had found something that suited us, obviously he felt that we did not want to be very rich people.
3pm and another meeting with a business agent, now this guy obviously specialises in the most Expensive Cheap Businesses in Perth, but then his office is in the City Centre so the rents must be high therefore he would need the extra commission to pay for it. He showed us 4 Businesses that he had on his books and we took the details away with us to peruse at leisure.
If you want details on a business over here you are expected to sign a confidentiality document before you receive any information whatsoever, half the time you sign one of these documents and then find out that what you thought was a Café Called the Lunchbox is actually a Wholesaler selling Male Underpants, it’s infuriating but that’s the way they do it.
It’s Sharon’s Birthday today so we took her and Malcolm up to the Local Pub for a Meal and a Drink the food was very good and plenty of it but we were kicked out of the dining area when they stopped serving at 9pm and they said that Children aren’t allowed in the Bar area so that brought the Family gathering to an abrupt end. Carolyn, Sharon and the kids went home while Ian and Malcolm had a couple more pints in the bar until Carolyn came back to pick us up later. There was a band playing in the bar and they were not very good to say the least, they were obviously not very popular as including Ian and Malcolm there were only 6 people in the bar and 2 of those were so drunk they probably didn’t know they were there, but they were very loud, we think they were practicing for a Gig at Wembley Stadium just in case they ever got one.
Got up early and after breakfast we went up to the Car Showroom to test drive the Zafira that we saw yesterday. It runs like a dream, low mileage, full service history and apart from a couple of minor scrapes on the rear bumper is generally in good condition. We have a bit of a barter, agree a price and they agree to respray the bumper and tidy up a couple of scratches, and to top it all we get them to give us a courtesy car while we are waiting for ours to be prepared and made ready for collection.
The courtesy car is a bit of a dog to drive, a Nissan Pulsar which has obviously been massively abused by its previous owner, but it means we have a bit of independence and do not have to try and fit everything in around Sharon’s lifts to and from work.
12 noon and we have a meeting with a dodgy Irish Business Agent that has been advertising in the papers for the last couple of weeks that he has got an abundance of Café style businesses that will make their new owners very rich people. He spent just over an hour telling us to avoid dodgy Business Agents and when he could see that we weren’t impressed with his well rehearsed patter he said that he would get back to us when he had found something that suited us, obviously he felt that we did not want to be very rich people.
3pm and another meeting with a business agent, now this guy obviously specialises in the most Expensive Cheap Businesses in Perth, but then his office is in the City Centre so the rents must be high therefore he would need the extra commission to pay for it. He showed us 4 Businesses that he had on his books and we took the details away with us to peruse at leisure.
If you want details on a business over here you are expected to sign a confidentiality document before you receive any information whatsoever, half the time you sign one of these documents and then find out that what you thought was a Café Called the Lunchbox is actually a Wholesaler selling Male Underpants, it’s infuriating but that’s the way they do it.
It’s Sharon’s Birthday today so we took her and Malcolm up to the Local Pub for a Meal and a Drink the food was very good and plenty of it but we were kicked out of the dining area when they stopped serving at 9pm and they said that Children aren’t allowed in the Bar area so that brought the Family gathering to an abrupt end. Carolyn, Sharon and the kids went home while Ian and Malcolm had a couple more pints in the bar until Carolyn came back to pick us up later. There was a band playing in the bar and they were not very good to say the least, they were obviously not very popular as including Ian and Malcolm there were only 6 people in the bar and 2 of those were so drunk they probably didn’t know they were there, but they were very loud, we think they were practicing for a Gig at Wembley Stadium just in case they ever got one.
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